The Rook looks like the tower of a castle. For this reason, some people mistakenly call this piece a "castle". But we have devised suitable punishments for such people. ("Castle" is a verb in chess and not a chess piece! We will discuss castling in lesson 8.)
The Rook is considered to be the second most powerful piece, right after the Queen. Here's why...
The Rook moves straight in any of four directions: up, down, left, and right. The squares it covers form a cross. In other words, it can travel the length of its file or rank.
No matter where you place the Rook, it has the potential of influencing 14 squares. Since the Knight can only cover a maximum of eight squares, and the Bishop can only cover a maximum of 13 squares and can only visit half the squares on the board, the Rook is obviously a more powerful piece than the Knight or the Bishop, but less valuable than the Queen, with its minimum coverage of 21 squares
.We assign a relative value to the Rook of 5 Pawns.
In order to remember how the Rook moves, think of the Rook as having been crucified, and hanging on a cross.
Each player gets two Rooks, and they are placed on the outside edges of the board.
In this position, whoever's turn it is wins. Let's say it's White's turn, what is White's best move?
(1. Rg8#)
The Rook on g8 checks the King, and the Rook on b7 cuts off the King's escape: checkmate!What if it were Black's turn back in the previous diagram?
(1. ... Ra1#) (The same idea in reverse).